Editor’s Note: Dr. Wilkinson delivered this paper about Haiti to a colloquium commemorating 40 years of study of African literature at the University of Porto.
*****
Permit me to begin by saying that I am new to African literary studies. My academic training has been in the fields of political science, comparative literature, women’s studies, sociology and pedagogy. I have taught politics and history both at secondary and tertiary levels. However, most of my work has been as a translator and independent scholar. My itinerant career took me to Brazil in 1986, to Berlin in 1989, and to South Africa …
It’s Cowboy Cops Cavalry against Peaceful Indigenous Peoples and their Anglo Supporters at Standing Rock
by Dave Lindorff / November 24th, 2016
The struggle at Standing Rock, North Dakota, between the Sioux people and their supporters and the oil corporations and banks trying to run a dangerous pipeline for filthy Bakkan crude oil through their sacred lands and underneath the Missouri River was cranked up to a new level of violence Sunday and in ensuing days as National Guard troops and the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, bolstered by volunteers from various other police departments conducted an all-night attack using maximum violence, including flash-bang concussion grenades, rubber bullets, mace, teargas and three water cannons — this at a time the temperature on the …
I had a grand opportunity on what Paul Edwards calls National Genocide Day. My family was assembled to take part in a turkey give-a-way to the local poor in Watsonville, California, and as a consequence I was able to spout out a lot of what I had just learned from Censored 2017, the annual yearbook from Project Censored. The downside was that I wound up plagiarizing much of their material, but the upside is that my presentation was recorded, which has enabled me to provide you with essential information for activists to tackle our greatest challenges …
The video that shows members of Syria’s White Helmets partaking in the popular ‘Mannequin Challenge’ with an injured man, was first posted online by the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office (RFS), an anti-Assad media outlet. #MannequinChallenge was in the video’s title along with ‘edge of death.’
The video was not shared on the White Helmets’ social media pages and has since been removed from RFS social media.
Fear and trepidation are slowly building up, as US President-elect, Donald Trump, is fortifying his transitional team with people capable of bringing about a nightmare scenario, not only for Americans but for the rest of the world as well.
For Palestinians, however, the signs are even more ominous. From former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, to Republican leader Newt Gingrich, the Trump team is filling up with dishonorable men who have made careers out of pandering to Israeli interests and unabashedly discounting Palestinian rights.
While Gingrich had claimed in 2011 that Palestinians are an ‘invented‘ people, Giuliani, according to Jewish …
On November 24 the Swedish Institute of International Affairs hosts an event with the White Helmets.
On November 25, they are to be awarded the Right Livelihood Foundation’s 2016 Award.
But below you’ll find out who the White Helmets really are.
Why does the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and the Right Livelihood foundation risk their reputation, goodwill and integrity by supporting such a dubious front organisation for less noble goals?
And will media swallow it all with no investigative efforts and make fools of themselves?
I have long wondered what the animal kingdom – mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and insects – would want to tell us humans if we and the animals had a common language?
Well, in my new Fable – Animal Envy (Seven Stories Press)– a “Human Genius” invents a digital translation application whereby animals can speak with each other across species and also speak one way to humans so they learn to listen. The response by “subhumans” was so overwhelming that the Human Genius reserved 100 hours of global TV …
US officialdom and their media megaphones have systematically concocted narratives having less to do with political reality and more with their hallucinogenic world view. Pre-election and post-election reportage weaves a tapestry of fiction and fantasy.
We will discuss the most pernicious of these remarkable foibles and fables and their predictable failures.
The pundits, prestigious editorialists and ‘economists with gravitas’, have convinced themselves that the election of Donald Trump would ‘lead to the Collapse …
Did Donald Trump win the election because he is a racist and misogynist and so are the American people?
No. That’s BS from the Oligarchs’ well-paid whores in the media, “liberal progressive” activist groups, think tanks and universities.
Did Trump win because he stole the election?
More BS. The Oligarchs controlled the voting machines. They failed to steal the election, because the people outsmarted them and told the pollsters that they were voting for Hillary. This led to the presstitutes’ propaganda that Hillary was the certain winner, and the Oligarchs believed their own propaganda and didn’t believe it necessary to make certain of …
"Canada is back" to isolating itself from world opinion on Palestinian rights
by Yves Engler / November 22nd, 2016
How can you identify a Canadian Liberal? They talk to the left, but walk to the right.
Under Justin Trudeau “Canada is back” to isolating itself from world opinion on Palestinian rights.
On Monday Canada joined the US, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau in opposing a UN Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee resolution in support of Palestinian self determination.
Two weeks ago Ottawa joined Israel, the US, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau in opposing motions titled “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan” and …
Trump, the Class Struggle, and the (Somewhat Overstated) Specter of Fascism
by Gary Leupp / November 22nd, 2016
The polarization in the country following the Trump electoral victory is not what Karl Marx called the “class struggle.” But it reflects an underlying class struggle — what Marx called the “uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight” — which is a real thing, surely, in this country and globally. This struggle between capitalists and workers has never been totally eclipsed by struggles over anything else, including those involving “culture wars” and ethnic identity.
Forget that tired assumption that Trump can’t win without the women’s vote, and the African-American vote, and the Latino vote, and the GLBTQ vote. He can win, you …
With enough information, anyone can gain knowledge. With enough knowledge and persuasion, anyone can gain power. So, with so much information available to anyone with an internet connection, why did everyone become fixated on fear-mongering, paranoia and conspiracies? Despite people gaining the ability to publish their own thoughts to millions of readers online, they have become more and more convinced of their own powerlessness under tyranny.
Although it is no bad thing that the people are more interested in the inner workings of their governments now, excessive fear cannot do any favors for anyone. In fact, a cowed people are only …
President-elect Donald Trump’s appointees get nuttier and scarier by the second. Meet Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn – the new National Security Advisor. Unlike other positions in the new administration, such as Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State, Flynn will not be vetted by the US Senate.
Even with a Republican-controlled Congress Flynn probably would have been nixed by the Senate in January, 2017. Why?
First, he’s a hyper-rabid Islamaphobe. In his recent book, Flight of Fight: How We Can Win the War Against Islam, Flynn describes ISIS as “dead set on taking us over and drinking our blood.”
When the dust settled on the November 8 election, we learned that a completely unpredictable, egomaniacal, narcissistic buffoon would inherit the White House and the vast powers that go along with it. This deeply offended many people who see Donald Trump’s racist and misogynistic rhetoric as “unpresidential.” Liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow summed up this view: “I respect the presidency; I do not respect this president-elect.” That the president-elect should not be respected is a given. But why should we respect the presidency?
The Imperial Presidency of the United States has evolved over the last century to the …
The presidency of Donald Trump is going to be a slap in the face of American workers that will wake us up to the reality of social class. Big T’s pedal-to-the-metal policies will show us clearly that we are one class, the ruling elite are another class, and our interests are diametrically opposed. Our declining standard of living is essential for maintaining their wealth, and they will do whatever is necessary to continue that. They will jail us, deport us, kill us, anything to crush resistance.
It all has a hurried sense to it. With the offshore detention system running into troubles, the Australian government has had to find ways to get rid of the human residents it has promised never to settle in the country. This highly dubious policy, far more than anything Donald Trump could ever wish for, entrenches a further wall of imperviousness to refugee claims from those travelling by boat to Australia.
Max Chalmers provides a neat survey of the quagmire of cruelty that has unfolded over the years.
Three years after the initiation of Operation Sovereign Borders, four years after Australia recommended …
Late in the day Tuesday November 15, Congress convened in special session. With normal rules suspended, they passed House Resolution 5732 the “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act”. The resolution calls for intensifying already harsh sanctions on Syria, assessing implementation of No Fly Zone in Syria and escalating efforts to press criminal charges against Syrian officials. HR5732 claims to promote a negotiated settlement in Syria but, as analyzed by Friends Committee for National Legislation, imposes preconditions which would actually make that more difficult.
There was 40 minutes of “debate” with six representatives (Royce, Engel, Ros-Lehtinen, Kildee, Smith, …
A little over one week following the presidential election, The Washington Post carried this headline: “The North Pole is an Insane 36 Degrees Warmer Than Normal as Winter Descends,” d/d November 17th, 2016. That headline is not tomfoolery; it is an actual, real temperature reading.
According to NovaNext, PBS, November 18th, 2016:
As the Arctic settles into polar night, scientists are noticing that something has gone horribly wrong. Sea ice levels at the North Pole are at a record low- but even more startlingly, air temperatures are 36° F (20° C) higher than normal across the region.
Reality is serving up a changing-of-the-guard in America in no small order. The fourth estate et al is left punch-drunk following the political outcome of an election that was supposed to be ‘in the bag’. Media and the ‘celebrity’ interpretation of events failed to focus a vast numbers of disposed (deplorable) people on how to act. A billion dollars spent as voice-over failed to do the trick. An election that conveniently ignored America’s very deplorable foreign policy turned out to be a class event.
It now seems that jamboree and anti-jamboree is occurring simultaneously in post-election America and that navel-gazing hubris …
After a political deadlock that has lasted for over two years, the recent election of Michel Aoun as the new president of Lebanon on October 31st 2016 has generated more questions than answers. The dramatic consequences of the Syrian conflict make for a delicate balance in this small country, where the cultures of mountain and sea are intertwined. To understand what made this new governing alliance possible, and what is at stake in the coming months, we have interviewed Ghassan Saliba, president of the Information Centre for foreign workers of the CCOO trade union of Catalonia, who is also …
On September 23, 2016 Marine Harvest sued Alexandra Morton and John and Jane Doe and All other Persons Unknown for trespass, nuisance and damages. On November 16, 2016, I joined three hereditary Dzawada’enuxw chiefs who filed a response to Marine Harvest, the biggest salmon farming corporation in the world based in Norway.
Traditional leaders Farron Soukochoff, Willie Moon and Joe Willie (seen below) deny any act of trespass or nuisance as they were within the lawful traditional territory of the Dzawada’enuxw Nation and do not consent to pay damages to Marine Harvest. ((Download 2016-11-15 Response …
Western sandpipers flock by the thousands during migration, one of the natural world’s great spectacles. Photo by Donald M. Jones/Minden Pictures
Hakai Magazine — This article is the first in a two-part series. The second installment, looking at the future of the western sandpiper at Roberts Bank, will be published on November 29, 2016.
As the tide pulls out over British Columbia’s Roberts Bank on an …
by The Real News Network (TRNN) / November 19th, 2016
Michael Hudson is a Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is the author of The Bubble and Beyond and Finance Capitalism and its Discontents. His most recent book is titled Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy.
Here Hudson explains how economic terms like capital gains are deployed to mislead the public about who is benefiting from economic policy and where wealth is going.
Once again as almost twenty seven years ago, NATO is faced with a deep-seated, soul searching existential issue or an internal threat. That’s right, not from an invasion by foes. It faces losing its very relevance or purpose as an organisation in the world.
Its survival is at stake in the present and uncertainty hovers over the military pact in the future. Here’s why. The Atlantic alliance was meant to in the words General Lord Ismay, NATO’s first Secretary General, “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”
The election of Donald J. Trump on Tuesday, November 8 terrified many who consider themselves notionally progressive or traditional republicans. It also terrified free trade ideologues, and those who believe that opening borders to boundless consumer goods and services eradicates poverty.
There are few better exponents of this idea on trade than Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, whose insistence that protectionism remains an evil to be combated has sounded pious. Keep the markets open, while shutting borders to people desperately seeking refuge. In other words, keep such monsters as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement on the table for full implementation, while flouting …
Sonoma County, California — “Think global and act local. This is the intention behind the actions of the Commission on Human Rights, which passed a resolution on Tuesday night in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline,” according to a November 18 press release from the Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights.
“We wanted to support the Standing Rock Sioux, but also the actions of our local tribal leadership from the Coyote Valley Band and Kashia Band of Pomo, Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and Ya-Ka-Ama, as well as the many residents of Sonoma County who have mobilized around this issue,” says …
When the likes of Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad, and now Donald Trump, are declared the latest ‘New Hitler’, we learn little except that they are enemies of the establishment. It means the ‘On’ button has been pressed on a propaganda machine designed for maximal demonisation, leaving no room for public doubt. This inevitably drives comparisons in the direction of Hitler and the Nazis.
The rationale is well-understood by the public relations community. Phil Lesley, author of a handbook on PR and communications, explained the spectacularly successful strategy for obstructing action on environmental issues:
To be upfront, I strongly believe that President Trump is exactly what the USA desperately needs at this time, a disrupter. I say this as someone who worked in the political world for over 20 years, is white, highly educated, old and affluent. I ask all who have negative views of Trump to open their minds and consider my arguments.
In September 2015 I published an article in which I said: “Trump surely has more current and potential supporters than the media and political establishment can accept. Unlike Trump, they have no imagination. The Donald, to …
Every aspect of this year’s US Presidential election has been fraught with myths, distortions, fabrications, wishful thinking and invented fears.
We will proceed to discuss facts and fictions.
Electoral Participation
The mass media, parties and candidates emphasized the ‘unprecedented voter turnout’ in the elections. In fact, 48% of the eligible voters abstained.
In other words, nearly half of the electorate did not vote. There were many reasons, including widespread disgust at both major party candidates and the …
